Shallow Whispers
by xX Sybella Xx
Summary: Elsword changes orphanages to one that is called, "Shallow Creek Orphanage." When he first arrives, he finds Aisha, a lone girl with sorrow filled in her eyes. The next day, he is surrounded by new friends, except for Aisha who avoids contact. Determined to understand Aisha, he decides to gain her trust at all costs, even if it means facing the ones he once loved.


**Sybella: owo And here's chapter one, edited after a long period of time since when I first published it. I can't guarantee that I'll post chapters quickly since school is more time consuming than last year. I hope that you guys enjoy this story! (I know I will xD)**

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The car made a sharp turn into the parking lot that was covered with colored autumn leaves. There was only two cars in the parking lot when we drove in. One was a silver minivan that was already coated with orange and red leaves. The other car, a blue truck, was parked right next to the silver car. A wooden sign was standing alone in front of the empty-looking log cabin. 'Shallow Creek Orphanage' said the sign in bold letters. The walls were made out of logs and stones, but it had a wooden planks for the stairs and floor. Windows were covered up with red curtains from the inside but you can still see a small yellow light through a small opening. Next to the building was a small lake that was surrounded with a forest of fiery trees. Returning back the sign, I stared at it while processing the fact that I would be living there until I had reached the age of sixteen.

I sighed silently as my eyes lingered at the words 'Orphanage.' My previous orphanage was boring and was filled with little kids. They cried so much that I had to do everything outside where it was quiet. Some of the kids peed at night, not to mention the bathroom were filthy since the small kids couldn't even use them right. If only they had parents...After a few months, I couldn't bear with them so I asked Stella, the owner of that orphanage, to find me a different one that had kids around my age. I was surprised when she agreed. I wasn't sure if this act was out of sympathy or out of desperation of getting rid of me.

I was informed that Shallow Creek was a new orphanage that was only accepting seven kids for the new owner to get used to the new job. They only accepted me into Shallow Creek since they took in kids that didn't get along with other kids in their previous orphanage. I bet they didn't know what the ages of the kids I was living with when they decided that I wasn't fitting in. Perhaps Stella had left that information out to get rid of me.

The radio was roaring loudly into my ears as the car screeched to a stop in a narrow parking spot. A random person was singing rap though the speakers and I had the urge to stick my fingers in my ears to drown out the noise, but I didn't dare move under Stella's hawk-like eyes.

The music abruptly came to a stop the moment that Stella had twisted and jerked out the car keys. The keys jingled musically in the air as she opened the car door. My hand rested on the leather arm rest as I savored the small moment of peaceful quiet. When there was a impatient three-knocks on the window, my eyes flickered open and warily watched Stella snap at me to get out. I braced myself for the frightening punishment when I opened the car door and stepped onto the land of my new orphanage.

The moment I set foot out of my small safety spot in the car, I knew it was the moment that I would regret the most.

Stella's angry face loomed over me as I backed up to the lavender car side. My head banged against the dark window that nearly broke my skull. Trembling, my hands were held out in front of me, trying to keep the angry woman away. I gulped when her mouth opened widely into a big, fat O. It was a bad sign. A VERY BAD SIGN. It meant that she was going to lecture me.

"Elsword," she began, "You better say that you're sorry for coming late. Don't you dare try to steal from Ariel and DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT LOCKING ALL THE DOORS IN THE BATHROOM. If you do..." I'll admit it. I locked all the doors in the bathroom. It was the only way to make her come inside to see how dirty it way. Plus, I was really bored that day and I wanted to do something BAD. When I saw her disgusted face that day, I held my fingers out in front of me, making a camera screen and took a small mental picture of that day. Sadly, I was rammed into the wall many times by a new bully after that and lost the detailed picture of that wonderful face.

Her lecture kept drilling into me and I was sure that I would be dead before I could even make it inside the orphanage. I decided to play this game where I would count how many times she "don't" and then post it on a world record website. One... Twenty-four... Fifty-eight... One hundred and two... By the time Stella had stopped screeching at me, the sun was setting, causing the orange lake to reflect it's light on me.

Stella took in a deep breath and exhaled. "Let's go in. It's getting late." Hallelujah, she finally gets to the point! I lugged my heavy luggage across the parking lot. My luggage bag didn't have any wheels since it was old and used many times, causing me to drag it. We walked across the parking lot, crushing the leaves as we go. I could hear the soft crunches as we both walked each step differently. Bored to death, I decided to try to step at the same time as her. After a few tries, our feet were in sync as we crushed the leaves. I snickered until I tripped up the stairs to the porch. Sheepishly I rubbed my knee, the spot where I got hurt, and caught up with the non-concerned Stella.

We reached the door that had a golden knob with a keyhole in the middle. I remembered my sneaky friend from my old orphanage. He was a few years younger than me and had red hair and a cheerful smile. His name was Toma, but the bigger kids renamed him as 'Toeman'. Anyways, Toma was trying to pick lock into the kitchen to sneak some more food for both of us since our food was stolen by bullies who were always laughing their heads off. "We're older than you, so we need more food than you, midgets." It was ironic since I was actually older than them but I was still angered by them. Their annoying voices traveled into my mind and I glared straight ahead of me as irritation bubbled inside of me. I gripped my luggage tightly, wishing that I could strike them down with my fists.

"Move it, Elsword. We don't have all day to stand, drool, and glare at the door."

Snapping back into focus, I could see Stella's twitching eye as she waited impatiently, holding the door open. I used the back of my palm to rub my mouth, and sure enough, there was a bit of drool there. Embarrassed, I quickly wiped it on my pants and quickly stepped into a small lobby where there were small red couches that were lined up against the wall, along with a small green plant that was in the corner. A large window was above the red couches on my left and in front of me was a counter that was covered with stacks of paper along with a computer screen that faced away from my direction.

Stella promptly closed the door shut, scratching the edge of my worn out shoes that I had a hard time walking in. It was impossible to wiggle my toe in the shoe, since all five toes were cramped in a small area of space. Right before I left my old orphanage, I looked for the biggest size shoe that I could get since my old shoes were stolen or accidentally taken because all the shoes looked the same.

There was a bit of clicking behind the computer and I was sure that I had seen a bit of orange right over the computer screen. I stood on my tippy-toes and winced in pain. I got a good look of a young lady who had orange hair in a ponytail and blue eyes that reflected the light from the monitor. Her hands were blurring as she typed at high-speed that I never knew was possible.

Stella coughed politely as she tapped her foot while waiting for the lady to notice that we were here. The computer lady looked up with a dazed look on her face after slowly registering that there was someone right in front of her. "Oh. OH! I am so sorry! My name is Ariel," she said while pointing to her small name tag that glimmered in the yellow lights. "How many I help you?" She said with a smile on her friendly face.

Stella snorted and said with an amused tone, "No need to get all formal. I brought Elsword," she nodded at my direction, "and I wish you good luck with him. You'll be needing it." She grinned at Ariel and laughed at the girl's puzzled look. I widened my eyes once I heard her laugh. Normally Stella would coldly announce a person's stupidity, but Ariel had a different effect on her. I wanted to make a square out of my two fingers and pretend to record that moment, but right on cue, Stella turned to glare at me as if she knew what I was going to do. In return, I gave her a fake, big and bright smile that always made her scoff.

"I'll show him around, Stella~! You can go back home now." Ariel came out from behind the counter that was made out of wood but had marble top. She pushed a bag of snacks into Stella's hands and urged her back outside. They both exited the room, leaving me all alone standing in the center of the lobby-like room. Bored, I walked around taking a good look at where I was going to stay at for the next few years.

Judging from the room I was currently in, I concluded that the other rooms were just as clean, but would become quickly dirty if lots of other kids moved in. The floor was made out of cobblestone, but it was covered by a large rug that looked glued in the middle. The walls were made of two level: the bottom half was made of cobblestone while the upper half was made of logs that were polished until they were glossy-and-fake-looking if you observed closely.

I heard the door open and close after staring for about five minutes into a painting that hung on the wall. The painting showed a purple haired-girl sitting on a log in front of a creek that softly churned in below her feet. The girl was staring into the water, her eyes filled with many sorrowful emotions that made me want to sit down next to her and cry. Below the picture was a caption that said, "Painted by: Eve Suzuki and Rena Nakamura"

"The girls just painted that yesterday." Ariel's voice startled me as I jumped a bit. I saw Ariel's sad expression on her face as she stared into the painting. "The girl that they drew is named Aisha. She's... very different from the rest." She turned her attention back to me and gave me a smile. "I hope that you'll be able to become friends with her!" I returned Ariel a small smile and returned my gaze to the painting, wondering who Aisha was.

"Welcome to the mysteries of Shallow Creek." a small voice whispered in my mind.

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**Sybella: I looked up whether there were orphanages during this time. Sadly, all I got was information that just confused me even more. ^^ I'd appreciate it if you review or PM me facts about orphanages so I can add more detail to this story~! Also, shout-out to my first two reviewers before I edited chapter 1: Enderkiller77 and Asurade!**


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